Imagination/Visualization

When casting magic, part of the import of your will-working involves how well you imagine or visualize what you wish to bring about. It is your concept of your desires that determine how truly they are fulfilled. Most magic systems encourage you to learn how to formulate your desires carefully, how to imagine that which you wish to bring about so as to make it more likely that this effect will indeed occur.

Types of Visualization

There are two basic methods for using imagination and visualization in magickal workings: holding the vision or desire in your head entirely, or using some sort of physical representation in the working of the magic. The use of a physical representation is often called sympathetic magic, because you are wishing for that effect to happen to the larger object or person you are representing with your physical model.

For example, a voodoo doll is a very concrete form of visualization. The things that happen to the doll are mean, through analogy, to happen to the person that doll represents as well. In Jewish mystical thought, the word itself is enough to represent the thing. A kabbalist who was talented could write the word “life” on a piece of paper, incorporate it into a clay model, and bring that model to life as a golem, at least according to folk belief.

The reality is a little different. The word holds the power. A clay model given the word “life” would not become your servant, but his stiff limbs might be able to hold a piece of your life, protecting you from harmful things. One with the word “love” might be able to draw love to you, et cetera.

A girl who wants her boyfriend’s sweaty t-shirt to sleep in may be performing a sort of visualization magic, whether she knows it or not; keeping that shirt close to her, sleeping in it, brings the reality of his permanent presence in her life closer.

Imagination in Magic

The most critical element in any magic casting is imagination. You must be able to visualize and imagine that which you wish to bring about in order to have any hope of making it happen.

For this reason, most magical systems teach you a variety of methods for visualization. Most focus on deep thought, even self-hypnosis so that you can put yourself into a light trance, as exercises that will bring you closer to being able to actualize your desires. Only when you can hold the vision of what you desire in your head can you will it into existence.